Can you do a contemporary self-build on a budget?

[flanagaj]

We are on a tight budget < £1500/m2, but I intend on doing a lot of the work myself.  Kitchens / bathrooms, plumbing, carpentry...  I was a cabinet maker in a previous life.
I just wanted to add that, as I know some on this forum are banding around figures of £2500+/m2 for a self build, and I simply am not buying those figures.

The reason for the post is to try and understand what is it that you need to avoid when trying to create a contemporary design.  I assume lots of steel (cantilever) and glass will eat into the budget, but if I was to show the designs below


 

Ignore the balcony and the fascia on the top as I wouldn't want those.

 

Drop the cantilever on the left hand side

Could these be done on a budget or is it simply impossible?

[Thorfun]

Time, quality, cost. 
 

you can have two of the three. So costs can be low and assuming you don’t want to compromise on quality it’ll just take you a long time to do! 
 

@nod is your man for self-building for low prices but he is in the trade. 

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, flanagaj said:

Could these be done on a budget or is it simply impossible

Yes.

Buy stuff carefully, and don't go silly on technology.

Two big things that many think improve their lives are kitchens and bathrooms.

Be sensible about those and save yourself £40k.

 

Windows are just sheets of glass in frames. Always remember that.

 

Adding insulation at the design stage is the time to do it, not as an afterthought.

Work out which parts give you the greatest return.

[Kelvin]

We’re at £2100/m². Including all fees and prelims. The only thing that doesn’t include is the decking as we’ve not done it yet. 

[Kelvin]

I disagree about kitchens and bathrooms. You spend a lot of time in both. It’s the thing you also touch the most along with door handles. Consequently any design problems will be very obvious and any quality problems will show up quickly. While we didn’t go absolutely mental on them we didn’t scrimp either and both have worked out well for us. 

[SteamyTea]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17 by SteamyTea

[flanagaj]

4 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

I disagree about kitchens and bathrooms. You spend a lot of time in both. It’s the thing you also touch the most along with door handles. Consequently any design problems will be very obvious and any quality problems will show up quickly. While we didn’t go absolutely mental on them we didn’t scrimp either and both have worked out well for us. 

If you are in the know, it's amazing what you can achieve using birch ply and vacuum bag veneering, all of which are something I am able to do.  I have no intention of spending > 10k for a kitchen.  Just no need.

[nod]

13 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Yes.

Buy stuff carefully, and don't go silly on technology.

Two big things that many think improve their lives are kitchens and bathrooms.

Be sensible about those and save yourself £40k.

 

Windows are just sheets of glass in frames. Always remember that.

 

Adding insulation at the design stage is the time to do it, not as an afterthought.

Work out which parts give you the greatest return.

Great advise 

[PNAmble]

We went turn key due to the Time dimension,  spend money where you see value.  If you don’t like entertaining / cooking don’t build a fancy kitchen.  If you like spending hours in a bath spend money on a bath.  
 

Our ££ saving was ground works, build, finish, occupy in 9 months, including the wettest winter in history.  But we had borrowing fees so that was important to us.   
 

But insulate, get airtight, and remove cold bridges as those can’t be upgraded later. 
 

 

[Kelvin]

Our main kitchen cost £20k including all the appliances and the large quartz counter top which was £3500 alone. The kitchen furniture was about £11k I think. We bought it two years before we fitted it so avoided some of the inflation costs and it was kept in storage for free. 

Edited June 17 by Kelvin

[nod]

Six years ago we finished our build at £815 m2 300 m2 

This time we’ve gone larger which has helped with the budget which is £1000 m2 which is looking likely that we will be under While we have gone overboard on Insulation and haven’t scrimped on finish quality Weve been sensible and keeping costs down 

Ws had. Two lots of windows in the vaulted ceiling’s The glass steel and frames where coming in at 10 k So the where cut from our plans 

We’ve kept Architecht fees low again

Barterd with Echo surveys 

Buying online saves a small fortune 

Ive Ben buying for the four bathrooms for 12 months All German again

In ones or twos 

The labour is We where the  big savings are

I do 8 hours on a building site and then four at the build Then 20 hours over the weekend with my wife 

Worth it at the end 

 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

51 minutes ago, nod said:

Great advise 

Thank you.

[nod]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

I disagree about kitchens and bathrooms. You spend a lot of time in both. It’s the thing you also touch the most along with door handles. Consequently any design problems will be very obvious and any quality problems will show up quickly. While we didn’t go absolutely mental on them we didn’t scrimp either and both have worked out well for us. 

Absolutely 

we’ve gone Hans Grohe again and Two Hacker kitchens with Siemens appliances 

[garrymartin]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

It’s the thing you also touch the most along with door handles. 

One of the key interior designer mantras - spend money on the things you touch and feel.

[garrymartin]

Our architects suggest in the current market, in our area, we budget for £3000/m2 for a main contractor build Passivhaus; we're using a £2000/m2 initial budget on the basis that we'll be project managing ourselves, getting trades in for some things, and doing a lot of work ourselves. We expect to come in under this, but it's a figure I'm comfortable starting with from a planning perspective to see what our budget can deliver in terms of design. We can afford to spend more, but we'd rather not if we can avoid having a mortgage at the end of the build.

 

Our brief for the architects is very clear though that we'd rather get the superstructure the right size and design even if that means we finish some things off at a slow pace over an extended period. For example, we'd like a sauna for the health benefits, and we want to make space for it from a shell perspective, but we may not put it in initially if the budget doesn't allow it. However, we'll also be considering whether various things attract VAT savings and will be offsetting those decisions against the cost of finance and the period over which we think something might complete; e.g. if we can't initially afford a sauna at £10K from our savings, but it would attract VAT at a later data (and inflation) and therefore cost £12K plus, then the cost of finance over three or four years might be less than the VAT costs and inflation making taking the finance and doing it anyway the sensible course of action.

 

Hope that makes sense!

Edited June 17 by garrymartin

[Kelvin]

11 minutes ago, garrymartin said:

One of the key interior designer mantras - spend money on the things you touch and feel.

We had the oak handrail fitted the other week. I wanted it fitted as one continuous handrail so you can run your hand up and around the corner for the full flight without lifting off. Not terribly easy to do. I also spent many hours sanding this prior to oiling then did several coats of oil sanding between coats. Consequently it’s silky smooth and a lovely thing to touch. Between this and the door handles it will be the bit of the house we’ll touch the most. Same with the kitchen cabinets. We wanted a matt finish for a few reasons one of which was how it feels when you touch it. The door handles weren’t dear but we ordered several different handles before choosing these and chose them because the curve fits your hand. 

[Dave Jones]

another fantasist.

 

Build cost using real trades and merchants are from £2k m2 for cheapest of cheap builds to £3k for legoland type finish.

 

 

Obviously making parts of the build free will give you a false picture unless your work has no value.

[flanagaj]

1 hour ago, Dave Jones said:

another fantasist.

 

Build cost using real trades and merchants are from £2k m2 for cheapest of cheap builds to £3k for legoland type finish.

 

 

Obviously making parts of the build free will give you a false picture unless your work has no value.

The graph clearly states that it's using tender prices and main contractor.  That is of course going to cost you considerably more than managing the contractors you need and doing the rest DIY.

[Crofter]

A small number of large windows, ideally non opening. 

Secondhand kitchen appliances (my Bosch oven was £50 and looked unused) 

eBay taps and shower screen

Painted MDF arcs/skirts- very DIY friendly so saves labour as well as up front cost. 

Bamboo instead of oak flooring. 

 

You could be bold and not fit a heating system, it worked for us but the house is very small and very well insulated and airtight.

[Kelvin]

30 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

The graph clearly states that it's using tender prices and main contractor.  That is of course going to cost you considerably more than managing the contractors you need and doing the rest DIY.

Yes but your time isn’t free if you could be earning. In my case I retired early from a very highly paid job for example. 
 

As I said earlier we are at £2100/m² for a good spec through using trades (which were a bit of a mixed bag), careful buying (time consuming)  and DiY (slow) 

 

We could have built for a fair bit less. For example, we used Scottish Larch from Russwood that was treated with a relatively dear product. It cost about a third more than buying the larch locally and not treating it at all. However, our house is fully clad in this and it was such an important part of the overall visual look that it was important we got this right. 

Edited June 18 by Kelvin

[JohnMo]

14 hours ago, flanagaj said:

£1500/m2, but I intend on doing a lot of the work myself

Simple answer is yes. You need to target how you design, how you purchase, make little or no change during the build.

 

50 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

Scottish Larch from Russwood

We got green larch direct from the mill for about 1/3 russwood prices.

 

Generally keep things simple, UFH in screed is cheap and easy. Do you need multiple zones no. Spend on insulation , airtightness and quality of finish.

 

Design of house really makes very little difference to build cost, efficiency of design and how you build it is where cost savings come from.

 

Choose a build method that is cost effective.

[G and J]

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Choose a build method that is cost effective.

Beware though, over analysis of the cost of different building options boils your head.  :-0

[garrymartin]

1 hour ago, flanagaj said:

The graph clearly states that it's using tender prices and main contractor.  That is of course going to cost you considerably more than managing the contractors you need and doing the rest DIY.

It's also for all types of development, not specifically for self-build one-off housing.

 

Using all the data from the various pages on the costmodelling.com site (where the chart comes from), a one-off detached housing of 2 storeys would, on average, be £2290/m2 - £2550/m2.

 

Factored for the size of my project and my location (West Midlands) that comes out at £2286/m2 - £2546/m2 for a main contractor build so I'm happy with my budget guide of £2000/m2 for my self-managed, some DIY, getting in trades approach.

 

And yes, of course, my labour isn't *technically* free and is likely to extend the time taken to build, but they're the choices we make and I'd hate not to be as involved as I can be, even though I can probably afford not to be...

[Russell griffiths]

You can’t ask this question here and get an answer that will fit you. 
there are people doing a bit of painting and saying they built their own house, then there’s people actually on the roof fitting all the slates, then there’s people doing everything from foundations to the roof. 

you can build whatever you want, your budget is easily achievable, but don’t think it will happen quickly, you will need to do loads yourself. 
building a kitchen is not loads and will save you ten grand. 
doing a bit of painting will save you a couple. 
you will need to be very much hands on to achieve what you want. 

[garrymartin]

On the original ask, here are some of the fundamental things that can cost large amounts of money;

 

* Poor plot selection (sloping, poor soil, orientation etc.)

* Poor access to services (electricity, water, etc.)

* Easements affecting the plot (we have a water main through ours for example)

* Access to the plot (highways safety)

* Making changes during the build

* Always going with the cheapest quote

* Selecting technologies/approaches that are new to the market with limited trade experience